PARK: Exclusive focus on academic validation undermines other important lessons in college
Column: The Queue
While I was always one to put grades first and pushed myself in school, I never believed the idea that grades define who you are as a person. Still, I found myself pulling all-nighters studying for exams, putting in the work and getting upset when I did poorly.
Craving academic validation is something nearly every college student experiences. As students, academics are a huge part of our lives which makes it easy to fall into a habit of feeling like grades are the center of everything. Coming to college, I had my eyes set on a perfect GPA and taking at least a 15-credit course load every semester.
From what I know, Rutgers students are prideful and hungry in terms of academic performance. Working hard to be the best students we can be and setting goals and expectations for ourselves are of the utmost importance. My friends and I often spend hours in study lounges working on accounting homework, helping each other when we feel extremely under-prepared despite the constant studying.
Seeing the notification that a grade was updated on Canvas raises my heart rate by 10 beats, but a small "A" in the corner of the screen makes everything seem worth it. So, when we do not meet an expectation, especially when we stay up late at night to study and lose plenty of hours of sleep, it feels like nothing short of a complete failure.
Striving to do well is a mindset that has been ingrained in our heads from a young age. In middle school and high school, getting good marks was much easier. But, for me, the incentive was placing high on the honor roll and getting into a good college. Doing well on the SAT and getting good grades means getting into a good college. Our GPA often stands proudly, or not, at the top of our resumes.
When we have nothing to show for our effort, everyone else invalidates our hard work. This is what I struggled with the most. I put in time and effort, but at the end of the day, a poor quiz grade makes it seem like I did the complete opposite.
But, as students, we all know or will come to learn that grades are deceptive. Not everyone can and will get an A on every single assignment. Our GPAs are reflective of the classes we take, some of which are easier or harder than others, and some students face grade curves that are meant to cap a certain amount of high marks. This makes our craving for academic achievement much worse.
An obsession with being the quintessential well-rounded, smart student drives a lot of students to success both inside and outside of the classroom. But there is a fine line between the motivation academic validation provides us and when it begins to be more stressful than fulfilling.
For example, 87 percent of U.S. students claim that education is a significant source of stress, especially due to the pandemic and its continuing aftermath that greatly affected our education systems. The pressure we put on ourselves can be detrimental to our mental health, pushing down our self-worth and also destroying the work-life balance we may try to establish.
Our education directly relates to how we perform in college. It also translates to how we will function out in the real world and workforce. But we should learn not to have to fixate on them and let a singular transcript dictate our self-worth. Yes, education — especially in college — is supposed to cultivate our minds in the classroom. But it should also challenge us to develop social skills and critical thinking that can be applied wherever we may end up.
The focus should be on learning and retaining the most information we can, and if that results in something less than a 100 percent grade on an exam, so be it.
With the end of the semester coming soon, the pressures of exams and final projects are building. It is easy to fall victim to this vicious cycle of academic validation, but it may limit your ability to perform well due to the stress and the intense emotional highs and lows one may experience. Not exceeding the expectations of yourself and others is disappointing, yes. But the need to feel like it makes or breaks your entire life is unnecessary. Do not let academic achievement or the lack thereof consume your life.
Annabel Park is a sophomore Rutgers Business School sophomore majoring in marketing and minoring in health administration. Her column, "The Queue," runs on alternate Tuesdays.
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